1.5.0 breaks pip support for Python 3.8

[thirtyseven]

🐞 bug report

Affected Rule

The issue is caused by the rule: pip_parse

Is this a regression?

Yes, the previous version in which this bug was not present was: 1.4.1

Description

rules_python 1.5.0 upgraded its internal setuputils to 78.1.1 which has a minimum supported Python version of 3.9. Using this version with Python 3.8 leads to errors (see below) although for some reason, I only see them on Linux builds, not Mac.

I think dropping 3.8 support is reasonable given that it is EOL, but 3.8 is still included in versions.bzl and no announcement was made in CHANGELOG.md.

🔬 Minimal Reproduction

🔥 Exception or Error

Collecting pyspark==3.5.1 (from -r /tmp/tmpxgf31w1w (line 1))
  File was already downloaded /mnt/builds/cache/bazel/_bazel_root/7b7747ec045ae606eb720a1222f56098/external/rules_python~~pip~py3deps_38_pyspark_sdist_dd6569e5/pyspark-3.5.1.tar.gz
  Preparing metadata (setup.py): started
  Preparing metadata (setup.py): finished with status 'error'
===== stdout end =====
===== stderr start =====
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error
  
  × python setup.py egg_info did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1
  ╰─> [18 lines of output]
      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "", line 2, in 
        File "", line 14, in 
        File "/mnt/builds/cache/bazel/_bazel_root/7b7747ec045ae606eb720a1222f56098/external/rules_python~~internal_deps~pypi__setuptools/setuptools/__init__.py", line 22, in 
          import _distutils_hack.override  # noqa: F401
        File "/mnt/builds/cache/bazel/_bazel_root/7b7747ec045ae606eb720a1222f56098/external/rules_python~~internal_deps~pypi__setuptools/_distutils_hack/override.py", line 1, in 
          __import__('_distutils_hack').do_override()
        File "/mnt/builds/cache/bazel/_bazel_root/7b7747ec045ae606eb720a1222f56098/external/rules_python~~internal_deps~pypi__setuptools/_distutils_hack/__init__.py", line 89, in do_override
          ensure_local_distutils()
        File "/mnt/builds/cache/bazel/_bazel_root/7b7747ec045ae606eb720a1222f56098/external/rules_python~~internal_deps~pypi__setuptools/_distutils_hack/__init__.py", line 75, in ensure_local_distutils
          core = importlib.import_module('distutils.core')
        File "/mnt/builds/cache/bazel/_bazel_root/7b7747ec045ae606eb720a1222f56098/external/rules_python~~python~python_3_8_x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lib/python3.8/importlib/__init__.py", line 127, in import_module
          return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
        File "/mnt/builds/cache/bazel/_bazel_root/7b7747ec045ae606eb720a1222f56098/external/rules_python~~internal_deps~pypi__setuptools/setuptools/_distutils/core.py", line 20, in 
          from .dist import Distribution
        File "/mnt/builds/cache/bazel/_bazel_root/7b7747ec045ae606eb720a1222f56098/external/rules_python~~internal_deps~pypi__setuptools/setuptools/_distutils/dist.py", line 51, in 
          Union[tuple[str, Union[str, None], str, int], tuple[str, Union[str, None], str]]
      TypeError: 'type' object is not subscriptable

🌍 Your Environment

Operating System:

  
Ubuntu 20.04
  

Output of bazel version:

  
Bazelisk version: v1.19.0
Build label: 7.5.0
Build target: @@//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel:BazelServer
Build time: Thu Jan 30 18:33:17 2025 (1738261997)
Build timestamp: 1738261997
Build timestamp as int: 1738261997
  

Rules_python version:

  
1.5.0
  

Anything else relevant?

[aignas]

I tried removing 3.8 at some point but I ran into issues because bazel modules were depending on it even though they were not using it. I have created #2704 to fully remove 3.8.

Since it is EOL and someone has to look into the bzlmod issue and remove 3.8, I'd say that it is very unlikely to be fixed. Users are free to revert the setuptools override through patching rules_python 1.5.

Removing this from versions.bzl is part of #2704. However, please feel free to create a PR to update the changelog notes to mention that setuptools has been bumped which effectively makes 3.8 unusable with the pip integration.